Was Russia truly an empire respectful of the differences among its constituent parts or was it a unitary state seeking to create complete homogeneity?

John P. LeDonne is a senior research associate at the Davis Center, Harvard University.

Kira Stevens, Department of History, Colgate University:

"Forging a Unitary State is a sprawling work of immense erudition."

Mikhail Dolbilov, Department of History, University of Maryland:

"Dealing with complex issues of statehood and government, Forging a Unitary State can be situated under the rubric of a broadly defined institutional history. LeDonne builds upon a profound variety of primary sources and the massive corpus of his previous scholarship in Russian geopolitics, tsarist bureaucracy, and the system of administration. The book poses new questions that challenge widely held narratives about Russia becoming an empire."